Drought and food insecurity “far from over”

Over three million Kenyans continue to depend on emergency food aid as the north and east of the country enter a fourth year of drought. Paul Rossiter, regional livestock coordinator for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), told IRIN that an estimated 35 percent of households in one province of Kenya were food insecure and would probably need relief assistance. “The long rains have been a disaster in Eastern Province,” he told IRIN. He added that the drought was continuing in Turkana, Marsabit, Isiolo, the lowlands of Samburu, Tana River and several other areas. “Drought and food insecurity are far from over,” he warned.

Paul said that, in many areas, between 10 and 20 percent of livestock had died, and these figures could be significantly higher in isolated pockets. “Even sheep, goats and camels were dying in localised areas,” he said. Pastoralists were being forced to move out of their traditional grazing lands in search of suitable pasture and humanitarian agencies have doubted the ability of many pastoralists in the north to maintain their traditional lifestyle under such circumstances. Meanwhile, attempts by drought-stricken communities in southern Kenya to clear land for agriculture were destroying the environment and further hindering long-term recovery. Successive droughts in Kajiado District had resulted in environmental degradation as communities cleared forested areas for agriculture and charcoal production, in turn resulting in soil erosion, poorer precipitation and more severe droughts, humanitarian sources said.

[For further details, see IRIN Horn of Africa Web Special of 9 July: “Struggling with the Legacy of Drought”
(http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/). It looks at the problems faced by communities and countries after prolonged regional drought in Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan. This Web Special is a region-wide look at the devastating effects of drought, and the strategies being designed to break the cycle of disaster, and help recovery.]